A VTOL airplane brings a landing pad in the compact state. The landing pad was rolled up for flight, but after landing it unrolls on the ground, to support the landing of subsequent lift-fan airplanes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,909 brings a rolled-up carpet hanging under a helicopter. Unrolling at the desired landing site creates the landing pad for subsequent helicopters. Our rolling configuration is different.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,724 in its preliminary discussion cites prior art wherein a mat is rolled or otherwise compacted to a readily transportable state, then transported and dropped on the ground. Personnel on the ground may complete the deployment. We duplicate all these actions, but our compact state is more specific.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,371,017 shows a transportable mat which includes transverse bands 13 (which are) “in effect a relatively stiff panel.” This resembles our landing pad made up of individual slats. The resemblance is carried further by his longitudinal flexibility which allows rolling up the mat (his FIG. 11.) In addition, placing two wheels on opposite ends of a central shaft lets his rolled-up mat be wheeled around easily. We also use two wheels at the ends of our rolled-up landing pad to unroll it. However, his rolled-up state doesn't pack the bands tightly. The right end of his FIG. 11 shows there is as much unused space as there is mat. The slats in our compact state are dimensioned to roll up tight.
At the end of our landing pad is an upturned wall that deflects upward the high-speed windblast from landing lift-fan airplanes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,324 is an example of an upward deflector wall; as are many others in subclass 244/114B. Our upturned wall plus support legs is built as a right angle, so it can be stored for air transport draped closely over the compact state.
Our airplane has a large downward excavation in the middle of the fuselage which contains the cargo represented by the compact state. The large excavation leaves only a narrow spine up high as the load-carrying structure. U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,227's aircraft is similar. Flexing of our narrow spine is a possibility. A long, outside brace is added down low on the fuselage to stiffen it. No prior example was found.